The Red Badge of Courage - EMC School

1 The Red Badge of CourageStephen CraneTHE EMC MASTERPIECE SERIESA ccess EditionsSERIES EDITORL aurie SkibaEMC/Paradigm PublishingSt. Paul, MinnesotaAG RED Badge FM 8/9/06 8:46 AM Page iStaff Credits:for EMC/Paradigm Publishing, St. Paul, Minnesotafor SYP Design & Production,Wenham, MassachusettsSara DayCharles BentPartnerPartnerAll photos courtesy of Library of of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataCrane, Stephen, 1871 red Badge of Courage / Stephen cm. -- (The EMC masterpiece series access editions)Summary: During his service in the Civil War a young Union soldiermatures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with hisconflicting emotions about war. ISBN 0-8219-1981-41. Chancellorsville (Va.), Battle of, 1863 Juvenile fiction.[1. Chancellorsville (Va.), Battle of, 1863 Fiction. 2. United States--History--Civil War, 1861 1865 Fiction.] I. Title. II. 199b[Fic]--dc2199-36549 CIPISBN 0-8219-1981-4 Copyright 2000 by EMC CorporationAll rights reserved.

2 No part of this publication may be adapted, reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, elec-tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permis-sion from the by EMC/Paradigm Publishing875 Montreal WaySt. Paul, Minnesota : in the United States of 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xxx 05 04 03 02 01 00 Laurie SkibaEditorLori ColemanAssociate EditorBrenda OwensAssociate EditorJennifer AndersonAssistant EditorGia GarbinskyAssistant EditorPaul SpencerArt and Photo ResearcherChris NelsonEditorial AssistantKristin MelendezCopy EditorSara HyryContributing WriterChristina KolbContributing WriterAG RED Badge FM 8/9/06 8:46 AM Page iiThe Life and Works of Stephen Crane.. vTime Line of Stephen Crane s Life .. viiiThe Historical Context of The Red Badge of Courage .. xUnderstanding the Text .. xivCharacters in The Red Badge of Courage .. xviEchoes .. xviiiIllustrations.

3 XxChapter 1 .. 1 Chapter 2 .. 12 Chapter 3 .. 20 Chapter 4 .. 31 Chapter 5 .. 35 Chapter 6 .. 42 Chapter 7 .. 49 Chapter 8 .. 55 Chapter 9 .. 60 Chapter 10 .. 65 Chapter 11 .. 71 Chapter 12 .. 77 Chapter 13 .. 83 Chapter 14 .. 89 Chapter 15 .. 94 Chapter 16 .. 99 Chapter 17 .. 105 Chapter 18 .. 110 Chapter 19 .. 115 Chapter 20 .. 121 Chapter 21 .. 129 Chapter 22 .. 135 Chapter 23 .. 140 Chapter 24 .. 145 Table of ContentsAG RED Badge FM 8/9/06 8:46 AM Page iiiPlot Analysis of The Red Badge of Courage .. 152 Creative Writing Activities .. 156 Critical Writing Activities .. 158 Projects .. 160 Glossary .. 163 Handbook of Literary Terms .. 181ivTHE RED Badge OF COURAGEAG RED Badge FM 8/9/06 8:46 AM Page ivTHE LIFE AND WORKS OFStephen CraneStephen Crane (1871 1900) lived only twenty-eight that time, he earned a reputation as a great American nov-elist, poet, and short-story writer; was a forerunner of literarymovements that flourished long after his death; and becamea respected war reporter.

4 Crane met the most noted literaryfigures of his day; he lived through a shipwreck and near-death at sea; and he became one of America s most notoriousliterary rebels, even angering a future president. Despite somuch action packed into so few years, Crane did have aregret that he never became a major league baseball we can never be sure what the loss to baseball was,Crane s chosen profession as a writer helped to spark a revo-lutionary change in American Crane was born in 1871, in Newark, New Jersey,the youngest of fourteen children. He had six brothers andtwo sisters who survived into early adulthood. StephenCrane s father was a Methodist minister who was alreadyover fifty when Crane was born. His mother was also adevout Methodist who wrote for Methodist journals andpapers, often in support of the temperance movement (amovement that advocated a sober lifestyle and sought to banthe sale of alcohol).

5 The Crane family moved frequently todifferent towns in New Jersey and New York, as Stephen sfather, the Reverend Crane, moved from church to Reverend Crane died in 1880, when Stephen was onlyeight years old. Stephen s mother took on more writing pro-jects, but the family was poor and continued to move fre-quently, most likely to escape debt. Stephen had a love ofadventure as a child that sometimes drew him close to he was very young, he almost drowned when he triedto join older boys swimming in a river. Stephen also gainedmore first-hand experiences with death. In a town in NewJersey, he witnessed a woman being stabbed to death by herromantic partner. One of Stephen s sisters, who encouragedhis love of reading, died when he was thirteen. A few yearslater, one of his brothers died in a gruesome railroad accident. Despite these experiences, Stephen maintained his highspirits and was determined to live life as he saw fit.

6 Stephenattended a number of boarding schools, one of them a mili-tary School . Although bright, he was never an excellent stu-dent. He spent his time reading books other than thoseassigned and playing baseball. He was a gifted catcher andTHE LIFE AND WORKS OF STEPHEN CRANEvStephen CraneAG RED Badge FM 8/9/06 8:46 AM Page vshortstop who could catch the ball barehanded. In 1890, heentered Lafayette College to study engineering, but quicklydropped out. The next year, he entered Syracuse University,where he followed his passion for reading and writing. Healso continued to play baseball and dreamed of joining themajor leagues despite his poor health. He excelled in English,but as he enjoyed reading everything but what was assignedfor his classes, the rest of his marks were poor. The summerafter his first year at Syracuse University, Stephen decidednot to go back and to try writing full began writing as a reporter in New York City.

7 Soonafter he launched his career as a reporter his mother was fascinated by the life in the Bowery, one of theCity s notorious slums. There he drew inspiration for his firstnovel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,a grim, Naturalistic novelabout an impoverished woman in a desperate s novel was too shocking for most himself, Crane borrowed money against thesmall inheritance his mother had left him to publish thenovel himself. Although the novel won the respect of a fewAmerican writers, it earned little critical praise and , but not willing to give up on his talent,Crane began reading widely about the Civil War. By 1894, hehad finished The Red Badge of Courage , his best known novelabout a soldier s experiences in the Union Army during theCivil War. He sold the novel for ninety dollars to be pub-lished serially (a few chapters at a time) in a number of news-papers.

8 The Red Badge of Couragewas published in its entiretyin a book in 1895. It immediately became a best-seller andwon Crane great critical acclaim. Most people, however, werestunned to learn that the young man who had written sucha compelling account of war had never seen one. The sameyear he published his first book of poetry, The Black s fame startled him, in part because people began tocriticize the way he lived. In 1896, he defended a chorus girlwho was arrested for immoral behavior. Because Crane testi-fied against police officers, he became a somewhat scan-dalous figure. The police commissioner of the City, TheodoreRoosevelt, who would later become president of the UnitedStates, was among Crane s escaped his growing notoriety in America and sat-isfied his fascination with war by becoming an overseas warcorrespondent, reporting on the revolution in Cuba. On hisway to Cuba from Florida, he met and fell in love with CoraTaylor, a woman with a questionable reputation who hadviTHE RED Badge OF COURAGEAG RED Badge FM 8/9/06 8:46 AM Page vibeen married twice before (which was considered to be scan-dalous in Crane s day).

9 On December 31, 1896, Crane set offfor Cuba in the steamship Commodore. Two days later theship began to sink. Crane, the captain, and ten other sailorswere lowered into the sea in a small lifeboat. After a day inthe lifeboat, they sighted land but the sea was too treacher-ous for them to make their way to safety. The boat capsized,and Crane and the other men struggled to stay alive in thecold, stormy sea. After someone on land spotted them, thecrew was rescued. On land, Crane read his own later immortalized his experiences at sea in the shortstory, The Open Boat. On his return, Stephen Crane and Cora Taylor left forGreece to report on the Greco-Turkish War. They married,and after the war moved to England, where Crane wasbefriended by fellow-American writer Henry James andBritish writers H. G. Wells and Joseph Conrad. In 1898, the Spanish-American war erupted, and Stephenand Cora returned to the United States.

10 Stephen tried toenlist in the Navy, but was rejected because of his poorhealth. Again, Crane became a war reporter, serving in bothCuba and Puerto Rico. After the war, Crane stayed inHavana, Cuba, to begin to write Active Service, a novel aboutthe Greco-Turkish War. Apparently he contacted neither hiswife nor his brothers, who began to launch official searchesfor him. Late in the year 1898, Crane returned to New Yorkto visit with his family before rejoining Cora in England, Crane completed and published both ActiveServiceand another book of poetry, War Is alsobegan an Irish novel, The O Ruddy,wrote some tales aboutthe American West, and published The Monster and and Cora were spending far beyond theirmeans and socializing too much for Stephen s poor celebrate the end of the nineteenth century, Stephenand Cora organized a three-day New Year s party at a manorthey rented.